The Living Now Project is an anthology of stories, meditations, and essays addressing the question:

If our world is looking down the barrel of an environmental
catastrophe, how do I live my life right now?

A wide audience recently gained an awareness of our world’s dilemma due to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. In response to this film many viewers experience a debilitating despairóa belief that we are just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. Others desire practical suggestionsóthey want to know what they can do. Others express a longing for some spiritual perspective.

The ‘tipping point’ we are approaching is more palpable each day, and people are feeling it in a way they can no longer ignore. It’s creating an emerging need for thoughtful individuals to provide reflection, inspiration and direction. The Living Now anthology provides tools, both practical and spiritual, both to those who care about our world — and for those who are just realizing that they need to care.

The contributors come from many walks of life: environmentalists, artists, CEOs, grass roots organizers, religious and indigenous leaders, scientists, and more.

By offering a variety of viewpoints, each reader will find several voices that speak directly to their situation. Rather than just coping with the dilemma, this book aims to give hope and concrete tools so the reader can find their own way to engage in some kind of beneficial action for themselves, their communities, and the world.

Some of the contributors who just came on board include Byron Katie, Andrew Harvey, and Barbara Kingsolver.

Excerpts from Ilonka Wloch, the Editor of Positive News US:

‘If our world is really looking down the barrel of environmental catastrophe, how do I live my life right now?’

I love my life. Every morning I wake up on a planet of exquisite beauty. And every night I can watch the star strewn sky. In reality witnessing the universe unfolding, our galaxy, other planets. During my waken hours, I, like all of us humans, get to make choices. Like You, I get to engage my body, my intellect, and my complex emotions in ways of seemingly limitless possibilities. I love being a human on this planet.

I make choices. I choose to allow the possibility that all of us here are connected. You and I, even though we haven’t met yet. We do share the same molecules with rocks, wolves, and waterfalls. One time I chose to sit up in a tree for days in an effort to protect a grove of wilderness downtown. That was the most risky activity undertaken by me. It was also one of the most sane.

I do it for love. Somewhere in my deep caring for us and this planet the line between me and ‘the rest’ disappears. What’s ‘out there’ is also me. And because I care for me, I take a complete responsibility for my ‘whole Earth’ and my ‘all people’. ‘How so?’ You may ask. Simply, I reply: ‘I live simply. And I know that I can be infinitely powerful. And I grow my heart.’

Simplicity! When I decided to move to a small cabin with no electricity and running water it was an experiment. Now, three years later I still collect fallen branches and at night stay cozy by my wood stove listening to the occasional coyote howls outside. I also believe that none of us deserve fewer resources because of the class, race, or geographic circumstances we were born into. This is why I try to live consuming my modest share of Earth’s goodies.

Power is a gift. We born as humans have been graced with remarkable power. We have the fire to say YES to sanity, justice, and caring. Those of us belonging to the owning/ruling class are well aware of this power potential of ‘common people’. With this knowledge creating laws serving to protect our wealth and distancing ourselves from the poor and working class. And still, over the millennia we of the poor, working, and middle class have been collectively saying YES to creating more justice and humane ways for all. We overthrew kings, discovered democracy, stood up for women’s equality, protected children, and proven that we are all connected since everything on our planet comes from the original stardust. I know that I can be infinitely powerful.

My heart is my compass. This heart is intelligent, lively, and fiercely tender when it comes to my well-being and ‘our’ well-being. It grows whenever I laugh, and dance, and leap off the imaginary mountains of fears into the abyss of trust. It can easily become a wild, untamed garden of possibilities whenever You and I deeply see one another, respect what we see, and connect. Once we realize that we are powerful enough to ACT to bring justice and love to our planet and to all of us here, then we understand that the Earth is at the Heart of our existence. And that the Heart is already here, as big as the Earth.

So how do I live my life right now, in the light of the changes facing our planet today?

Not by fear.

I dedicate my life to the celebration of existence. To the expression of Earth’s exuberant joy … in this moment, right now.

ilonka